148 THE STOEY OF THE PLANTS. 



. But smaller flowers often find it pays them 

 better to group themselves into big spikes or 

 masses, as one sees, for example, in the fox- 

 glove and the lilac. Such an arrangement 

 makes the mass more conspicuous, and it also 

 induces the insect, when he comes, to fertilise 

 at a single visit a large number of distinct 

 blossoms. It is a mutual convenience ; for the 

 bee or butterfly, it saves valuable time ; for the 

 splant, it ensures more prompt and certain 

 fertilisation. In many families, therefore, we 

 can trace a regular gradation between large and 

 almost solitary flowers, through smaller and 

 somewhat clustered flowers, to very small and 

 . comparatively crowded flowers. Thus the 

 largest lilies are usually solitary or grow at 

 best three or four together, like the lilium 

 auratum ; in the tuberose and asphodel, where 

 the individual blossoms are smaller, they are 

 gathered together in big upright spikes ; in the 

 hyacinth, the clustering is closer still; while 

 in wild garlic, grape-hyacinth, and star-of- 

 Bethlehem, the arrangement assumes the form 

 of a flat-topped bunch or a globular cluster. Of 

 course, small flowers are sometimes solitary, 

 and large ones sometimes clustered ; but as a 

 general rule the tendency is for the big blossoms 

 to trust to their own individual attractions, and 

 for the little ones to feel that union is strength, 

 and to organise accordingly. 



Botanists have invented many technical 

 names for various groupings of flowers in par- 

 ticular fashions, with most of which I will not 

 trouble you. It will be sufficient to recall 



